Would you like some Curiosity with that?
Most of the time, he brought Claire or Sam and Emily's kid with him on these trips to the ice cream shop. Mostly because he knew that She would realize he was stalking Her and probably freak out.
He wanted to smile at Her today. The last two times he had simply made sure that She had no idea he was watching Her. This time would be different.
Thomasina Anne Sykes. The rest of the Pack had taken to calling Her by Her full name, to encourage Seth to actually use it. He refused. In his head, She was still 'Her' or 'She'. It drove the rest of them crazy.
It didn't matter to him. He was about two minutes away from seeing Her again, and nothing but that mattered. Seth wondered idly if he should have asked one of the imprinted wolves advice on what to do to get Her attention...but that could also go far, far down hill. Last time someone had tried that, they ended up not only making a fool of themselves, but also embarrassing their imprint. He didn't want to embarrass Her.
Seth Clearwater was not a stupid boy. He may only be nineteen, and perhaps had wheedled the Elders into fudging his junior year in high school into an acceptable GPA, but he was certainly not stupid. He wasn't, per se, book-smart. Nor was he particularly intelligent, in the way of the general human populace. What Seth was, was animal-clever. He had a cunning, shrewd wolf mind. This brain of his had told him some weeks ago what he must do to avoid embarrassing or frightening Her.
What, precisely, was it that this animal-mind told Seth to do? Watch.
Watch your prey.
First rule of hunting - keep your prey in your sights. So Seth obeyed his baser instincts, and did what many police would have told him was illegal, and many women would have told him was completely creepy. He stalked Her.
Thanks to his stalking habits, Seth learned a good deal about Thomasina Anne Sykes. There were the obvious things, things that he had known upon his first sight of Her, such as Her appearance and scent. She was average height, pale as all get-out, with the most violently red hair he had ever seen.
Her hair was what made him surprised he had not seen Her upon entering the ice-cream shop, that first day. Such a color, on top of that it was so tightly curled that it stuck out of Her head in all directions, if it didn't reach for the heavens and acted like normal hair, it might come to Her ears. She had disturbingly black eyes - even for a guy who'd grown up around primarily dark-eyed people. The red-headed requisite blanket of freckles were present, also nearly violent in their evidence.
The things that he found out later, almost all of them, made him incredibly happy. She was involved with no-one, and seemed to be straight. She had a healthy relationship with Her family, and nice friends. She lived on the out-skirts of La-Push, and was still in high school.
She didn't smoke, do drugs, or drink regularly. She ate well, and got a good amount of sleep. The only thing that worried him was that She didn't seem to be terribly affectionate towards animals in general.
Oh, She had a dog (and a frog, though he wasn't sure that counted as either an animal or pet), but she was stern with the dog, and only stared at the frog. The dog was only a puppy at that... He wondered what She would think of him.
Finally reaching the ice-cream shop, Seth pushed the door open. Inspiration struck. Perhaps he should just sit down and start a conversation? What if She thought he was a creeper? Was he a creeper? Didn't stalking Her already elevate him... or rather, lower him, to this status? Shit, shit, shit... There She was! Dammit, he couldn't decide.
Her eyes caught his, surprisingly, but no recognition passed through them. A slight smile crossed Her now chapped lips before She went back to day-dreaming. He managed to grin back, mind made up, before She looked away. He went to get himself a cone, not even remembering what he ordered.
He knew why Her lips were chapped. She had dropped Her raspberry chap-stick two days prior and stepped on it by accident. That was the first time he had ever heard Her use a curse word. Of course, it was the worst one. For some insane reason, it made him ridiculously happy that he knew the reason that Her lips were chapped. He'd been there, he saw it happen. It somehow made him feel like he was a part of Her life. In a creepy kind of way.
As gracefully as a tall, muscled boy could, Seth swung himself into the seat across from Hers. He smiled at her, while She just looked confused, and slightly worried.
"Hiya."
She blinked at him, bit Her lip, and took a breath.
"Um, hi?"
A smirk. "Was that a question?"
She licked her lips now, nervously.
"Do.. um, do I know you?"
It wasn't a rude sounding question, but instead quietly imploring, as if She really didn't know if She knew him or not.
He kept his cool, "Well, as much as I wish you did... No, not yet anyways!" He playfully lifted his brows, suggesting that they should indeed know each other.
It seemed to be the right thing to say, as She instantly relaxed. "Oh! That's cool - who are you then? Have I seen you somewhere before?" Seth took a deep breath to reply, brows knitting when he smelled and heard something odd... She was... lying? How could you lie by asking a question? Seth still wasn't very good with this whole telling a person's mood by scent and heart-rate thing. Ah, that was it - She was nervous. This was processed in the matter of less than a second, and as he let out the breath, he said, "Seth. Seth Clearwater. And yeah, you've actually seen me in here occasionally. I usually come in with one of my brothers' kids. Plus... I really love ice cream."
She grinned at the last part, "Me too! I'm Thomasina Sykes - just call me Tommy or Tom-tom."
Seth had to take another deep breath - She, his very own imprint, had just told him Her name. Of Her own will. While smiling at him. "Tom-tom? Like the direction things you put in your ca-" He clapped his hand over his mouth - had he really just let that horrifying, vaguely derogatory comment out of his mouth? But She was laughing again.
"Yeah! You're one of the first people to actually notice! It's because I'm really good with directions, and my friends eventually dubbed me the Tom-tom of the group when we were on a road-trip. It's stuck ever since!"
Seth opened his mouth to ask about this road-trip, when what else would happen, but a wolf howled in the distance. He gritted his teeth slightly, they had to be kidding him - he was finally talking to his imprint! But the 'danger' howl came again, and he knew he had to answer.
"Hey, listen, I gotta run right now, but would it be really, um, forward of me to ask your number? I mean, if you don't want to, that's totally cool, and I completely get it - " "I'd love to give you my number - on one condition!"
There was no consideration to be done, "Sure! What's the condition?" She seemed taken aback, "Wow, just like that, huh? You don't even want to hear it before you agree?" He shrugged and grinned, "Nah, I'm pretty sure you're not going to ask anything off-the-wall, so shoot."
She took a deep breath, "Um, well, would you mind if I took a picture of you?" It was Seth's turn to be confused for once, "Uh, sure, I don't mind - go right ahead!" She pulled a fancy camera out of her bag, pointed it at him, mumbled "Cheese!" and took the picture. Then she did something odd. She pulled the camera away from her face, pressed the view picture button, looked at the little screen. Next she whipped out a pen, and wrote on her hand. He couldn't catch what she wrote.
After writing her number down on a napkin and sliding it over to him, she smiled rather prettily at him and calmly went back to her melting ice cream.
Seth made his goodbyes and left the shop, dragging his feet. He glanced back into the window, catching one last glimpse of his imprint. And, surprisingly, her hand. What was written on it confused him even more than some of her behavior.
Photo # 74, Seth Clearwater.
